TV star Denise Welch is among 12 famous contestants battling it out on series 6 of Channel 4 reality show Celebrity Hunted, which began on January 5, 2025.
In the celebrity edition, participants compete for a shorter time period (14 days) than on the original (25, originally 28).
Series 6 features the likes of Giovanni Pernice, Kai Widdrington, Denise Welsh, Duncan James and Christine McGuiness.
Denise Welch has opened up about her relationship history in the past, on Loose Women and elsewhere, and spoken about the “infidelities” that occurred during the course of her first two marriages – to husbands David Easter and Tim Healy. Here’s a brief rundown of what she’s got up to over the years.
Denise Welch and her first husband David Easter were married for five years
Originally from Tynemouth, Northumberland, Jacqueline Denise Welch graduated from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 1979.
Six years later, according to The Northern Echo, she married actor David Easter, from Hampshire. They had been together for a “long” time before tying the knot.
You might know him from roles in Brookside, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks or The Bill.
They divorced in 1988, after three years of marriage. The Echo quotes the Loose Women star as saying, at the time, that “David preached monogamy at me and then decided he could play away for Britain”.
By the late 1980s, both parties had moved on with their lives, and remarried. But in 2001, Denise invited David onto her ITV2 show Soap Fever, for what the Echo called her “toughest interview to date”.
Denise Welch and second husband Tim Healy
Denise met Tim Healy while working for Newcastle’s Live Theatre Company.
They married in Haringey, in northeast London, in 1988, and have two sons together: Matty (1989) and Louis Vincent (2001).
Matty Healy is well known as the frontman of pop rock band The 1975. And for dating Taylor Swift briefly in 2023, shortly after the megastar’s split from Joe Alwyn.
In a recent social media post addressing her Christmastime health concerns, Denise shared a video of her dancing with Matty, and other members of the family, over the festive period.
Matty’s younger brother Louis Vincent is an actor. He was born in Salford.
Denise made it clear during an episode of Loose Women in 2012 that she and Tim Healy had separated some time before that.
Star marries PR manager Lincoln Townley in Portugal
A few months after revealing her split from Healy, Denise’s engagement to her PR manager, Lincoln Townley, became public knowledge.
They married in Portugal’s Algarve region during the summer of 2013.
Among the congregation were Christopher Biggins, Coronation Street actresses Jill Halfpenny and Angie Lonsdale, and Loose Women co-panelists Carol McGiffin, Lisa Maxwell, Shobna Gulati, Kate Thornton, Zoe Tyler, Jackie Brambles and Andrea McClean.
Born just after Christmas in 1972, Lincoln Townley is 14 years younger than Denise Welch. She is his second wife, after a brief marriage to Beverley Scales in 1992, which broke down after just a few months, per the Mirror.
He and Beverley have one son together, named Lewis.
Since working for Denise as a PR manager, he has changed course. He was artist in residence at Marriott Canary Wharf from 2015 to 2017, and sold a painting of boxer Muhammad Ali for £500,000 in 2017.
Pulling Myself Together, alcoholism and depression
In her autobiography Pulling Myself Together, Denise writes at length about the affair she conducted during her relationship with Tim Healy.
And the affair she believed him to have conducted.
She came to associate her own infidelity with the mental illness she suffered in the 2000s.
Denise has spoken on several occasions about her relationship with alcoholism, and attending Alcoholics Anonymous. She also suffered a lengthy bout of depression, about which she writes in her book.
When life is difficult, Samaritans are here – day or night, 365 days a year. You can call them for free on 116 123, email them at [email protected], or visit samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.
Denise Welch on ‘infidelities on both sides’ with Tim Healy
In October 2024, Denise spoke alongside her Loose Women co-panelists about perceived societal double standards vis-a-vis women and men cheating.
“People feel generally that women cheat for emotional reasons,” she said. “And there’s an absolute valid reason why they cheat.
“I do agree I think there are double standards,” she added. “However, when I admitted to my own infidelities I was treated like literally the wicked witch of the west,” Denise Welch claimed.
“Certainly by the media in this country and by a lot of the public.
“Probably quite rightly so,” she said. “But I think that there are double standards.”
She later went on to say there had been infidelities on both sides during their 24-year marriage.
MailOnline quotes her as saying, in a separate clip, that there is a qualitative difference between emotional infidelity and sexual infidelity.
“A sexual infidelity could just be behind a bike shed or something when you are a little bit drunk,” she said, per the paper.
“I’m not condoning it,” she explained. “I am just saying I’d rather that than if my partner had met someone privately and got feelings for that person.”
Celebrity Hunted: Season 6 continues on Sundays on Channel 4. It began on January 5.
Read more: Denise Welch’s swipe at her ‘younger’ Loose Women co-stars after on-air clash with Stacey Solomon
What do you think of Denise’s opinions on infidelity? Let us know with a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix.